Li Cunxiao left happily, of course not because the emperor would leave him a big bowl of delicious food, but because he could finally lead his troops to kill people.
As a military general, he could not contribute to any of those planning and fighting, but leading troops to kill people was our Li's strong point.
Although he didn't know what exactly had happened, the instructions given to him by the emperor, Liu Muzhi and others were only to lead the Huben and Yulin, cooperate with Liang Xiping to control the imperial guards, and then take over the city defenses of Pingyang Gate, Qianxi Gate and Yun Gate as quickly as possible.
Because Liang Xiping and others currently have little information, they only found a few suspicious clues from various secret documents.
First of all, starting about a year ago, the damage rate of weapons and armor in the Shaofu Arsenal suddenly increased by about 30% compared with previous years.
The second piece of news was from about a year ago, which said that three horse farms near the capital city belonging to the Imperial Household were hit by a horse plague. About 300 war horses died, and more than 1,000 inferior horses were also affected.
This was originally a memorial from the Imperial Household to commend the stablemasters of the three stables for their achievements, because the three stables had only suffered such a small loss, which was entirely due to the timely control of the situation by the three stables.
Moreover, the horse plague did not spread to other horse farms in the capital.
There was nothing suspicious about this.
It is normal for plague to occur in the horse farm.
However, Liu Muzhi and others still found clues. They looked through all the documents about the Shaofu Horse Garden, but could not find out how these horses with febrile diseases were finally dealt with.
There is also no detail on how the plague was finally brought under control.
It seemed like it happened suddenly, and then suddenly it was under control.
If this was an isolated incident, it would be fine. However, although Liu Muzhi and others did not find out how the horses with the plague were dealt with, they discovered that the consumption of fodder in the Shaofu Horse Garden had become a bit abnormal since then.
That’s not all. Liu Muzhi and others later found some vague clues when checking the documents in Taicang. If you don’t pay attention to these clues, there will be nothing wrong at all.
Even with the ability of Liu Muzhi and others, after careful research, no more specific confirmation was obtained.
There was no way around it. The documents filed in the Northern Study were only for the Central Court. All the memorials from the Outer Court were in the Prime Minister's Residence, so they couldn't find them even if they wanted to.
But even so, Liu Muzhi and others still made a rough judgment.
"From last year till now, according to our estimates, the various abnormal losses at the Imperial City Armory, the Ministry of the Left, the Ministry of the Imperial Household, and other places have exceeded 30% of previous years.
The number is estimated to be over 3,000 sets of armor, weapons, and staffs, as well as a number of bows and arrows, including several large and small crossbows. In addition, the Imperial Household and the Grand Canal also have fodder, but the whereabouts of money and grain are unknown, so the exact number is difficult to estimate."
"There's another thing. A few months ago, the Jinyiwei reported that a group of bandits suddenly appeared on Cuiping Mountain in Dongping County. The number of bandits is unknown..."
Liu Muzhi clasped his hands and reported quietly.
Zhao Xin pursed his lips and said nothing, watching carefully as the fat melted quickly in the heated pan.
After a while, he said, "Send the news to Yu Huatian and ask him to send someone to investigate. If they find any information, they don't need to send it here, but send it directly to Liang Xiping. Tell Liang Xiping to ensure that the capital is not in chaos, and he can decide the rest on his own!
I don't care about the process, I only care about the result!"
As he was speaking, a sizzling sound came from the pot. Zhao Xin immediately shifted his attention and focused on what was in front of him.
He then turned around and called Qiao Sanniang and Su Qingyu to come and help him.
Of course, the so-called helping out was just asking Su Qingyu to pass things and participate.
Whenever the emperor asked for something, a palace maid would quickly take it and hand it to the queen, who would then pass it to the emperor with curiosity and nervousness.
The emperor's skill in this technique makes people wonder if he often does this kind of thing secretly in the palace, although this is not very likely.
The only thing that worried everyone was that the emperor seemed to put everything in it, including onions, ginger, garlic, and sesame leaves...
In the eyes of many people, these things are either smoked spices or medicinal herbs. Can they really be eaten?
The only relatively normal thing was probably dogwood, but the emperor kept complaining about it, muttering about why there was no chili pepper.
Seeing this operation, Kou Zhunren and others were ready to show their loyalty.
Fortunately, the fragrant aroma soon came out, and everyone's saliva came down, but the emperor still looked disgusted and said, "There is no vinegar or soy sauce."
After saying that, he scooped out a large spoonful of something called sauce that Qiao Sanniang had just given him from the pottery jar and poured it into the boiling oil pan.
The fragrance instantly became stronger.
Once the sauce is ready, pour it into a ceramic bowl.
Zhao Xin once again added a little oil and water to the pan and shouted, "Queen, bring it here!"
Su Qingyu didn't know what to take, but it didn't matter, because the little palace maid next to her had already brought a basin of mixed powder to her hand.
When Su Qingyu saw it, she knew that the real show was finally about to begin, so she quickly took it and brought it close to Zhao Xin.
Zhao Xin picked up a wooden spoon, scooped a spoonful, and poured it into the pot in a circle. Soon everyone found that the originally white powder paste quickly solidified in the pot and then turned into the color of nephrite.
Everyone was a little surprised that the food made with such white batter was not white.
However, the color after solidification is crystal clear, just like nephrite.
"Is this the delicacy made by Jiahe? It's amazing."
Everyone couldn't help but be surprised and admire.
Especially when the surface of the powder cake turned slightly yellow, the tempting aroma instantly filled the entire back garden, and everyone couldn't help but be deeply attracted by the powder cake in the iron pot.
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